Disappearing wall bed



May 10, 1938. H HALL 2,116,698

DISAPPEARING WALL BED Filed June 1, 1936 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. /%7/FVF)/7f /%zu 1 ATTORNEY.

May

H. H. HALL DISAPPEARING WALL BED Filed June 1, 1936 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. fizz w ATTORNEY.

Patented May 10, 1938 FENT OFFICE 2 Claims.

This invention relates to an electrically operated folding wall bed and has for its principal object the provision of a highly efficient and safe mechanism for opening and closing the bed, which will eliminate the complicated and expensive operating screws, cranks, levers, etc., usually employed for controlling such a bed.

Another object of the invention is to provide an efficient, light weight, easily installed device which will open and close a wall bed without manual exertion; which can be stopped, started, or reversed at any position in its travel; which, should the electrical supply be interrupted for any reason, can be quickly and easily adapted for manual operation; and which, cannot be operated while a person is upon the bed.

Other objects and advantages reside in the detail construction of the invention, which is designed for simplicity, economy, and efficiency. These will become more apparent from the following description.

In the following detailed description of the invention reference is had to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof. Like numerals refer to like parts in all views of the drawings and throughout the description.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the improved bed in place in a wall niche. This view is taken on the line 2-2, Fig. 3. The bed, however, is shown in the elevated or closed position.

Fig. 2 is a similar View illustrating the bed in the open position.

Fig. 3 is a plan View of the head portion of the bed, taken on the line 3-3, Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail section taken on the line 4-4, Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a similarly enlarged view, taken on the line 5-5, Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 is a diagram of the wiring system of the improved bed.

Fig. 7 is a face View of the control switch.

The bed is arranged for position in a niche or compartment i0 formed in the wall of the room. The compartment may be formed with a door casing l I upon which suitable doors may be mounted for enclosing the bed when in the closed position.

The improved bed comprises a spring frame l2 of angle iron or any other suitable material for supporting the usual bed springs 53. At the foot of the bed, the usual ornamental foot board Hi is rigidly secured to the frame !2, and a pair of legs l5 are also hingedly suspended from the foot of the frame I2. At the head, the frame i2 is turned upwardly to form a rigid head frame Hi. The head frame is solidly braced from the spring frame iii by means of suitable rigid braces I1. The head frame I6 is relatively low and does not project above the usual mattress when the latter is in place on the springs 13. A head board I8 is pivoted to the rigid frame I6, as indicated at I9. The frame It prevents the head l8 from swinging outward but allows it to swing inward.

The head of the bed is supported by means of a hinged diagonal brace at each side. The braces 2i) extend from pivots 2| at their upper extremities to pivots 22 at their lower extremities. The pivots 22 are mounted in guide castings 23 which extend upwardly at each side of the head and are secured to the side walls of the compartment H). The guide castings 23 are formed with vertical roller tracks 24 and the head of the frame i2 is provided with roller studs 25 which travel in the tracks 24 as the bed is raised and lowered. The raising and lowering is accomplished by means of an electric motor 26 which rotates a cross shaft 21 through a medium of a worm drive transmission 23. The cross shaft is mounted in two bearing blocks 29, there being one block adjacent each extremity of the shaft 21, upon which a pair of flexible cables 3! are alternately wound and unwound.

Each cable is secured at its one extremity to its spool 33 and at its other extremity to a cable bar 32. The cable bars 32 are removably attached to the rigid head frames It by means of wing nuts 33 and extend upwardly from the rigid head "3 to a connection with a cable 3|.

A spring tube 34 is secured in and extends up.- wardly from each of the bearing blocks 29. upper extremity of each of the spring tubes is longitudinally slotted, as indicated at 35, to expose a compression spring 36 contained within the tube. A pair of spring levers 3'! is secured to the rigid head I6, there being one of the levers 31 in alignment with each of the spring tubes 34 so that the upper extremity of the lever will enter the slot 35 and compress the spring 36 when the bed is closed.

The motor 26 is automatically stopped at each extremity of movement of the bed by means of a three-way switch 4| of the toggle type. The operating lever of the switch 4! is connected through a flexible member 42 with the rigid head frame I6 so that as the bed reaches its lowermost position the toggle is snapped upwardly and as the bed reaches its raised position the toggle is snapped downwardly. The motor is manually started by means of control switch 39 which may The i be located in a convenient position on the compartment casing The face of the control switch is shown in Fig. '7.

A suggested circuit diagram of the electrical connections to the driving motor is illustrated in Fig. 6. In this diagram the main feed wires are indicated at 38. One of the feed wires leads directly to armature of the motor 26. The second feed wire is in series with an electric overload circuit breaker 40. The control switch 39 is of the three-pole, double-throw type. One of the poles, indicated at 43, cooperates with the switch 4| to form a three-way control circuit 44 so that after the switch 4| has broken the circuit to the motor it can be again closed by swinging the pole 43 in the opposite direction. The second feed leads through the overload circuit breaker 4D and the three-way circuit 44 to the motor.

The remaining two poles of the switch 39 are employed to reverse the current fiow relation between the motor armature and field so as to reverse the direction of rotation of the motor.

Let us assume that the bed is in the open position of Fig. 2 and that it is desired to fold it into the compartment 0. The operator throws the reversing switch 35 to the up position. This completes the circuit through the threeway switch 4| and the pole 43 to the motor 26 and also connects the armature-field circuit of the motor to cause the latter to rotate in the proper direction to elevate the bed.

The motor drives the shaft 21 so as to cause the cables 3| to be reeled upon the spools 30. The cables pull downwardly upon the head of the frame I2, causing the roller studs 25 to travel downwardly in their tracks 24. The braces 2|] act as fulcrums so that as the head moves downwardly, the foot will move upwardly. This action continues until the frame l2 passes into the compartment past the dead center position of the brace pivots 2| and 22. As the bed approaches this dead center position, the levers 31 enter the slots 35 and compress the springs 36 which act as a cushion to stop the motion of the bed. This also causes the flexible member 42 to actuate the three-way switch 4| to the open side of the circuit 44 thereby stopping the motor 26. When the motor stops the springs 36 remain under compression.

When it is desired to lower the bed, the control switch 39 is thrown to the down position, which causes the current to flow through the closed side of the three way circuit 44 to the .motor so that the shaft 2'! will be rotated in the reverse direction. This unreels the cable 3|. Since the cables 3| can not exert a pushing action to force the bed over the dead center position to the point where gravity will operate thereon, the springs 36 are provided. These springs will expand as soon as the cables 3| begin to relax so as to push upon the levers 2'! upwardly to swing the frame |2 outwardly past the dead center position. The weight of the bed will then keep the cables taut as they unreel.

The legs l5 are actuated solely by gravity to swing to the suspended or supporting positions.

The head of the bed l8 cannot move backwardly since it is prevented by the rigid portion |B. A loose flexible spring 43 constantly pulls the head backwardly so that when the bed folds it will be drawn to the position of Fig. 1 against the back wall of the compartment Hi.

It is desired to call attention to the overload circuit breaker 4!]. This may be any of the standard types for opening an electric circuit when the load thereon reaches a certain predetermined quantity. This circuit breaker is set so that it will open the circuit should the weight to be lifted by the motor exceed the normal weight of the bed and bedding and acts as a safety to prevent the bed from being accidentally or intentionally closed while occupied.

It is also desired to call attention to the removable cable bars 32. It might happen that the electrical supply would fail when it became desirable to lower the bed. In such a case, the wing nuts 33 could be removed to release the bars 32 and their cables so that the bed could be raised or lowered by hand.

While a specific form of the improvement has been described and illustrated herein, it is desired to be understood that the same may be varied, within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired secured by Letters Patent is:

1. An electrically operated folding bed comprising: a bed frame; means for hingedly supporting said frame so that it can swing upwardly from open to folded position; electricallyoperated means for elevating said frame to the latter position; levers projecting from said frame; spring tubes positioned in the paths of said levers and provided with slots for the reception of said levers and springs contained within said tubes to be compressed by said levers as said bed frame reaches its fully elevated position.

2. An electrically operated folding bed comprising a bed frame, a fulcrum tiltably mounting the frame at a point in advance of the head end thereof for vertical swinging movement from a lowered horizontal position to a raised vertical position, vertical guides slidably engaged by the head end of the bed frame back of its points of pivotal mounting for guiding the bed frame during its swinging movement, a rotatably mounted shaft extending transversely of the bed adjacent lower ends of the guides at the head end of the bed frame, bars disposed vertically against the rear face of the head of the bed frame and detachably secured adjacent opposite sides of the bed frame at a point above the fulcrum when the bed frame is in its lowered position, reels carried by said shaft, flexible members wound upon said reels and extending upwardly and secured to said bars, and an electric motor for rotating said shaft to wind the flexible members upon the reels and exerting pull upon the head end of the bed frame to swing the bed to the raised position.

HARVEY H. HALL. 

